


Just before she closes her eyes

by persephx



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (and this is coming from an orphan so don't even try), (it's cancer), (katara is not going to be a big part of this but if someone makes fun of her i will throw hands), (tbh i'm hoping i make you cry), (thx), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), EVEN IF ITS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE FIC, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Katara (Avatar) Needs a Hug, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sokka (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Sokka (Avatar)-centric, aaaaaaaaaaaand that's about it i think(?), gay Zuko, i almost forgot that one, no beta we die like jet, sick kya, the major character deaht is Kya who is canonically dead so idk if it counts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28775862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephx/pseuds/persephx
Summary: Kya was happy to know that her kid wasn’t alone in this trying times. She was happy to know that, while she was stuck in a hospital bed about to die, her son had a boyfriend to keep his spirits up. And Zuko, no less, her boy’s best friend. She knew that if there was someone who could support him in these times, it would be him. So, she approved, and she made it very clear to Sokka.The problem, however, was that Sokka was not dating Zuko. Not at all.Or, best friends Zuko and Sokka fake being a couple because he doesn't want to make his dying mom sad.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Hakoda/Kya (Avatar), Past Sokka/Suki (Avatar) - Relationship, Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 68





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This first thing is a prologue, which means that it's _a lot_ shorter than what I'm hoping the proper chapters to be! I hope you like it anyways!

Kya was happy to know that her kid wasn’t alone in this trying times. She was happy to know that, while she was stuck in a hospital bed about to die, her son had a boyfriend to keep his spirits up. And Zuko, no less, her boy’s best friend. She knew that if there was someone who could support him in these times, it would be him. So, she approved, and she made it very clear to Sokka.

The problem, however, was that Sokka was _not_ dating Zuko. Not at all.

They were friends and nothing more, and he doesn’t know where the fuck did his mom get that idea from. He should have told her that he was indeed not dating his best friend, however her words stopped him instantly.

“I’m glad you have someone, my boy.” Her voice had been oh so frail. “I feared you would isolate yourself, but I’m so happy to see that you aren’t.”

She had looked so happy that he hadn’t wanted to burst her bubble. Those smiles were so rare now and he just couldn’t be the cause to make her stop. So he just nodded and smiled at her.

“Thank you, mom.” He had taken her hand and had squeezed once. His mom squeezed back.

They stayed like that, in silence, for a while. Sokka knew he was getting himself in a difficult situation, but he really didn’t know what to do to get out of it without making her feel bad. He didn’t want her to think that he was isolating himself, even though he knew that he hadn’t been really attending game night consistently since she got hospitalized. He knew what he was doing, but she didn’t need to know. She didn’t need to feel bad for him.

“Are you happy?” she asked suddenly.

Sokka had very pointedly not dedicated that thought a lot of time. He didn’t either this time. He smiled with what he hoped was a smitten look and nodded. “Yeah,” he muttered, knowing his mom would need a vocalization. His voice was rough, maybe because he was lying to his dying mom or maybe because he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“That’s good,” she muttered, nodding to herself. “You need to bring him to meet us soon,” she had continued, tiredly.

“You have known Zuko for years.”

She hummed. “Yes, but not as your boyfriend.”

And then Katara had walked into the room. And that had been that.


	2. Chapter 1: the start of a lie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka aproaches Zuko about the fake-dating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh, it's bothering me that the chapter numbers is not going to be correct now. ao3 really needs to make it an option to have prologues wihtout the chapter number! Anyways, I hope you enjoy this first chapter! I think the characters might be a little ooc, but I'm sure that, as I get familiar with writing them, they will get better and better!

Sokka was screwed. He truly was.

He was waiting for his stomach to calm down to walk into the Jasmine Dragon, but it showed no signs of doing it. Zuko was going to hit him in the head with a teapot. Well, maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, he wouldn’t have to lie to his mom then.

“Sokka?”

He looked up, startled. There, right in front of him, was Zuko. He was looking at Sokka with clear concern and there was a moment of straight panic that Sokka read as if it was a book.

“Mom is fine,” he said, and the relief that Zuko showed was instant. He nodded, but he was still looking at Sokka weirdly. It made perfect sense, of course, if he had seen him just waiting there for the ten minutes he had been staring at the front door. “I just need to talk to you.”

Zuko frowned and nodded. “Okay.”

“Do you think we can go up to your room?” At that, his friend nodded and walked inside. Sokka took one last breath and followed him.

Zuko was still living with his uncle in the apartment on top of their tea shop. Sokka found it endearing because he knew that the true reason was that he didn’t want his uncle living alone, but Zuko insisted that it was simply the easiest thing considering he worked at the Jasmine Dragon and spent there most of his time.

As they made their way up to Zuko’s room, Sokka saw Iroh and waved at him. The old man, as cheery as always, gave him a shining smile and made a gesture with his hand that Sokka could easily interpret as ‘we will have our teatime later’. Under all the happiness in Iroh, there was still a tint of sadness when he looked at Sokka, it had been there since his mom had been diagnosticated and he hated it, but knowing Iroh’s history, he couldn’t blame him.

“What’s wrong?” Zuko asked once he had closed his bedroom door.

It was a small bedroom, smaller than Sokka’s had been at his parents’ house. Zuko was tidy while being a complete disaster at the same time, which resulted in an organized mess that Sokka was, quite honestly, very familiarized with. His bed, made but rumpled, was pressed to the wall that had a big window, right in the best place to get the first rays of the sun, as he knew Zuko liked.

“I fucked up,” he ends up saying.

“You’re gonna need to give me more than that, Sokka.”

And then, he’s breathing too fast and his eyes are getting filled with tears and he doesn’t want to cry but there’s just too much. It’s too much. He doesn’t want to lie to his mom. He doesn’t want to lose his mom. Both are going to happen, and he knows it. If there’s something that he definitely doesn’t want is his mom to be worried about him when she’s like _that_. Sokka has been doing better with dealing with his feelings but he has only let himself cry about his mom once since she’d been hospitalized.

“Hey…”

Zuko, as awkward as always, put an arm around his shoulder. His friend had never been the best with physical touch, but Sokka appreciated it so much. They didn’t really hug often —Sokka tries to respect his personal space— but when they did, it felt like a bubble of comfort formed around them. Zuko knew that Sokka liked to be comforted with physical touch, hugs primarily, the same way Sokka knew that Zuko preferred silent company.

“Sokka, what’s happening?”

He took a couple of deep breaths and steeled himself. It didn’t make sense to him that he reacted this way, considering what was happening, but he rationalized that it was probably just too much in his plate. So, he breathed and calmed himself before speaking.

“Mom saw you bringing me food and tea the other day,” he told Zuko. Zuko nods, but it’s obvious that he’s still confused. “I don’t know if she talked with someone or what but…” He took another breath. “She thinks we’re together. As in, dating.”

Zuko was looking at him and not saying a word, which could not be a good sign. They stared at each other for a moment and then, finally, Zuko frowned. “What?”

“I don’t know how it happened. I just… She told me that she was happy for me and that she believed that we would be a great couple and I didn’t understand what she meant so I asked, and she laughed and said that we didn’t have to hide because she was just happy that I wasn’t alone right now and that she didn’t want me to be alone and—”

Zuko grabbed his hands. “Breathe.” Sokka nodded and focused on his breathing again. “Good. Ok. So your mom thinks that we’re dating.” Sokka nodded and Zuko nodded with him. “And you didn’t tell her that we aren’t.”

Somewhat there was no judgement in Zuko’s voice. Or at least, none that Sokka could detect. He still couldn’t bring himself to look at his friend’s eyes. He was asking for a lot and he still hadn’t even asked. “She seemed so glad,” he mumbled roughly.

There was a moment of silence, and then Sokka sighed and covered his face. “You didn’t see her Zuko, she seemed so happy that I was with someone… And she said that she didn’t want me isolating myself. I don’t want her to feel bad about this whole thing, I _need_ her to focus on getting better.”

“I understand,” Zuko said, rubbing Sokka’s back awkwardly. Sokka wasn’t sure he completely did, but if he had to spell it out to him, dammit, he would. “So… You want us to fake in front of your mom?”

“I… Yeah.”

“Okay.”

When Sokka looked up he saw Zuko deep in thought. “If you’re not comfortable with this we can just—”

“No. No, Sokka, it’s fine. I understand why you want to do this, and I want to help you. Kya… You’re right, she shouldn’t be worrying about you. I want to help you.”

Before he could say anything to answer that —do something like sell his firstborn—his phone rang. The same anxiety that had started to appear every time his phone rang a few months ago, showed its ugly head. He swallowed and saw that it was Katara.

“Yes.” He mumbled.

“Zuko!?” She exclaimed. Her tone made it clear that it was _not_ the situation that he had feared.

“No. I’m Sokka.”

“You idiot, you’re dating Zuko!?”

Sokka stayed quite and looked over at his friend with panic. Zuko looked at him with confused face. “She knows,” he whispered at him.

“You’re with him?” Katara asked instantly. Sokka wanted to hit himself in the face. “Put the speaker! I want to talk to him too!”

Sokka swallowed and did so.

“Hey Katara,” mumbled Zuko with a panicked expression.

“Zuko! Why are you dating my idiot brother and why didn’t you guys tell me?”

They stay in silence for a moment. When Katara had called like that Sokka had been sure that she had called to yell at them for lying to mom. He hadn’t expected her to actually believe that they were together.

“I— He has big arms” Zuko answered, although it sounded more like a question than a definite answer.

“What?” Katara and Sokka said at the same time.

Zuko was getting redder and redder and Sokka started pitying him. He shouldn’t let Katara bombard him about this, Zuko was doing him a favor and this was no way of repaying him. So he turned the speaker off. “Look, I’ll talk to you later, ok? I’ll explain.”

She agreed begrudgingly and hanged up. Sokka looked at his friend and sighed.

“So she doesn’t know.”

“I wasn’t expecting mom to talk to her so fast,” he moaned, putting his face into his hands again.

“Are you going to tell her the truth?”

Sokka took a moment to answer. He hated lying to his family, but if there was someone he never lied to, it was Katara. Still, he knew that would happen if he said anything. “If I do, she’s gonna make me tell mom, and I really don’t want that to happen.”

Zuko nodded, as if he understood the situation perfectly. “Look, I’m willing to do this, but we’re going to need to talk about what exactly we’re doing.” Sokka groaned and Zuko nodded again. “I’ll leave the planning to you, plan-guy.”

“I hate you.”

“Sure you do”

He breathed out and nodded. “You don’t know how much this means to me, man.”

Zuko smiled and rubbed his neck. “It’s fine, really.” There was a moment of silence. “Do you want to stay for tea?” he asked.

“I can’t, sorry. I need to go to the hospital,” he told him. “I want to give mom some books and stuff.”

“That’s ok.” His friend smiled. “Say hi to my mother-in-law for me.”

Sokka groaned for what felt like the hundredth time. “Am I gonna regret this? I feel like I’m gonna regret this.”

About fifteen minutes later Sokka was exiting the building with Zuko following to say goodbye. They hugged and Sokka thanked him again.

“Really, you’re saving my ass here.”

“I really don’t mind, buddy,” Zuko answered awkwardly. “You know how it is, one day I agree to fake-date you and the next you agree to do all my chores for a month.”

“Hey I did not agree to such a thing!”

Zuko hummed. “You might.” Then, he laughed and patted Sokka’s arm.

Sokka’s mind instantly traveled to that phone call with Katara, when Zuko had said that he had nice arms. Well, he did, didn’t he? He had grown a lot since he had been fifteen, when he had met Zuko for the first time, and, quite honestly, his arms had gotten bigger. He smiled to himself and looked at Zuko sneakily. His friend was more on the slim side than _built_ , so Sokka was ready to bet he had bigger arms than him. It wasn’t like Zuko was a twig or something like that. He had a nice body, Sokka guessed. Well, okay, yes, he knew his friend had a nice body. He’d seen people in the teashop thirsting after him, even if Zuko hadn’t noticed.

“Do you want to come tomorrow and have breakfast here? We can talk about this whole thing if you want to.” Zuko’s voice dragged him to the present. He had been checking out his friend. Well, that was not a good start to what they were doing. Although, he imagined that if he was going to check someone out, it would be his boyfriend, nobody knew it was fake, so.

He mentally shook his head and nodded. “Sure. Tomorrow. Breakfast.”

Zuko looked at him for a moment with his eyebrows frowned, bun then he nodded. “Ok, weirdo, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sokka nodded and turned to leave. Then he turned again and hugged Zuko. “Thank you,” he mumbled. And then, he left.

His mother seemed happy to see him, and even more to see her favorite book in his hands. She took it from him and opened instantly.

Sokka sat next to her as she read the first chapter out loud, just like they’d done for hundreds of times when he had been younger. It was not the same. Her voice was still the same tone, but it was clearly tired. It sounded like that one time when she had worked overtime for a week, except it was constant now. Illness will do that to you, Sokka guessed. He didn’t point it out, neither did she. They ignored the fact that she couldn’t make her voice sound gravely and rough for the male main character, like she usually did. They ignored that she had to read more slowly and that her pauses were more often than when he had been a kid.

When it was time for him to leave, Kya gave Sokka a big smile and opened her arms to him. He didn’t doubt it for a second before giving her a hug. It was easy to see the physical changes in her mom’s body when he touched her. She was a lot slimmer and her skin was ashen and rough, no longer soft. He held back the tears.

“Thank you, Sokka,” she said. “I needed a distraction. This hospital is awfully boring.”

Sokka laughed wetly. “Just make sure you get some sleep, don’t stay up late reading it.”

“I won’t,” she answered, and both knew that it was a lie. Sokka just smiled at her. “By the way, you need to bring Zuko some time. I can’t believe your sister and your father didn’t know about him either. Why haven’t you told anyone?”

So, she had told Hakoda too.

“I didn’t… It seemed like it was too soon,” he lied, uncomfortable. “I’ll bring him one of these days, ok?”

And he left, feeling like shit for lying to his family but feeling even worse because he couldn’t tell them the truth. Both Hakoda and Katara would hit him in the head for lying, and Kya would be so disappointed… he did not want to make his mom disappointed. So he promised himself that if there was someone he could prevent from making feel bad, it would be his mom.

Energized, he went home and planned. 


	3. Chapter 2: the spectacle begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko and Sokka strategize and he finally meets Kya as Sokka's boyfriend, even though he knows her from before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Exams kicked my ass. But now I'm here bringing you a chapter of this and the notice that I had _two_ more ideas that involve zukka and fake-dating :)

That morning Sokka didn’t hesitate at door of the Jasmine Dragon. He walked as confidently as always, ignoring the ‘closed’ poster. Zuko was already waiting for him in one of the tables near the windows, the one he knew Sokka preferred, and in front of him there were two steaming cups of _coffee_.

“I would kiss you,” Sokka said gratefully.

“Don’t rush to it,” mumbled Zuko dryly, to add effect to his words, he rolled his eyes.

Sokka sat in the sit next to him and took a big sip of his coffee. “Okay,” he said, reading himself. “My mom also told my dad, apparently, so now we’re going to have to do this in front of all my family. I want to check if you’re still in.”

“Yeah.”

Even though his response had been affirmative, Sokka didn’t miss how Zuko had tensed. Zuko had a weird relationship with father-figures, and Hakoda had been nothing but nice to him, but that meant nothing to his trauma. Sokka put a hand on his arm. Zuko seemed to realize how tense he was and tried to calm himself. It only half worked, but Sokka was not about to call him out.

“Okay so. Mom said to bring you to the hospital for an ‘official meeting’, as she called it. It makes no sense, considering they’ve known you for years, but we’re not going to say anything because she’ll turn on the puppy eyes and nobody can resist those.”

Zuko nodded. He hadn’t really experienced the puppy eyes a lot of times, but there had been some, like when he had started going around Sokka’s house and he had tried to say no to staying for dinner; he had only tried to say no two of those nights, and both had ended with him sitting at the table with them because of Kya. Even Hakoda, who had known her for their whole lives was unable to resist her power.

“Okay. I’ll go. When?”

Sokka grimaced. “She wanted you to come today, but I told her that you had work and that it might not be possible—”

“No. It’s okay, I’ll talk to uncle.”

Sokka looked around, but Iroh wasn’t there. “Did you tell him?” he asked.

“Yeah, I told him I was helping you. You know, in case Katara comes around and talks to him about it…”

“So you told him it was fake?”

Zuko’s cheeks turned a bit red. It contrasted with his pale skin and it made him look younger. “Yeah.”

“That’s good, I don’t think I could have lied to him anyways. The man is a lie detector machine.” Zuko nodded in agreement, although he did look a bit relieved. “Did he say something?”

“Just the typical non-sense, you know… Something about flowers and pollen… I don’t know.”

“Sounds like another type of talk,” giggled Sokka. Zuko’s answer was a hit on the back of the head. “Okay, okay. Let’s focus on this.”

“Okay. On what exactly?” Zuko inquired, grabbing his cup of coffee and taking a sip. When Sokka didn’t answer instantly, he turned his head to look at him. His friend had his eyes fixed on Zuko’s throat. Zuko was about to ask if everything was okay when Sokka seemed to startle back into himself.

Sokka cleared his throat. “Right, um…” He looked around even though the shop hadn’t changed in the last few minutes, and then turned his eyes back to the coffee cup. “Okay. So. Visiting my mom.”

“Yeah.”

“You’ve been there already, but… I don’t know, she’s weaker than before, it might be hard to see her,” he muttered.

Zuko didn’t miss the sadness in Sokka’s eyes. It was difficult, with how expressive his friend was. He pursed his lips and grabbed Sokka’s hand. He was very tactile, and while Zuko wasn’t, at least usually, he knew that it would make his friend feel better.

Sokka squeezed his hand and then continued, “I just want to warn you. Also, we can’t stay there too long, we’ll have to see how she is today. In her bad days, she can’t handle excitement for more than a few minutes. So we might go there for nothing.”

“It won’t be for nothing, Sokka.”

“You’re right, it will be for getting away with lying to my mom.”

He dropped Zuko’s hand and moved to put his head between his hands. He wasn’t crying, but Zuko had the feeling that he was close. Zuko couldn’t think of anything else to do but rub circles in his back.

“It’s not too late to tell the truth if you’ve changed your mind,” he said, trying to sound comforting.

He felt Sokka sigh deeply. He didn’t uncover his face before speaking, “no, I…”, he paused for a moment, “I don’t know.”

⸙ ⸙ ⸙

The hospital was overwhelmingly clean, as every time Sokka had been there. It was weird to think that a place that helped people stay alive would be so… well, dead. He hated that his mom was going to be stuck in here until… until she got better. Because she had to get better. Sokka needed her to get better.

When they got to her room, they found Katara there, with a book on her lap and a reusable cup, probably filled with coffee, on her hand.

His mom looked up and smiled at them. “Sokka, Zuko, my boys, come, come.”

Katara also looked at them and smiled, although hers was smaller. Visiting their mom always made her tired, both physically and mentally, and, even if she never admitted it, Sokka knew she cried every time she got out of the hospital.

“Hey guys,” she muttered. She got up and palmed Sokka’s arm. Then, she moved and hugged Zuko. “I can’t believe you guys hid this form us!”

“Yes, Sokka, you’ve never been good at hiding things.” Kya was paler than Zuko had ever seen her. Her skin was ashen, and her eyes lacked the energy he had always found in them. It was terrible to see her like that. But he smiled and moved up to her bed when Katara stopped hugging him. Kya grabbed his hand and closed her eyes with a smile. Her hand was cold and he had to repress a shiver.

“Hi,” he muttered.

“I always had the suspicion that you boys would end up together,” she said, still not opening her eyes.

Zuko turned red and looked back at Sokka, who seemed as caught off as he was. His cheeks were also crimson. Katara let out a laugh and nodded.

“We all did. With the way you both sulk every time you argue, no matter how stupid whatever has happened is.”

Sokka grumbled something and them moved next to Zuko to be close to his mom. She opened her eyes and smiled at him. For a moment, he thought everything was normal, his mom was smiling the way she always did, teasing him the way she always did, making fun of him in front of his boyfriend, as she always did. That woke him up if nothing else did. Nothing was normal, his mom was dying, and he had forced his best friend to fake being his boyfriend because he didn’t want his mom to know how much the whole situation affected him. Nothing was normal.

As if he had noticed the change in his mood, Zuko reached out to take his hand. They’d discussed this, the rules for the whole fake-dating thing. His family members knew he was very tactile and very into PDA, and they also knew that Zuko was very much not into it. They had wondered what would seem more realistic and then decided to just act as they’d been when they were friends, reach out sometimes and be apart sometimes. Sokka had brought up _kissing_ , and they’d had an incredibly stilted conversation about it.

“You want to kiss me?” Zuko had asked awkwardly.

“No!” Sokka had nearly shouted, startling his friend. “No, it’s not that I _want_ to, but… Don’t you think it’ll be weird if we don’t?”

“I imagine it’s the same as with touching, you do it and I don’t, so both things would make sense…”

Sokka had shrugged. “If you were really dating me, would you kiss me in front of my family?”

Zuko had pulled a face. “I wouldn’t make a habit out of it.”

“But you would, sometimes at least.”

Zuko had stopped for a moment. “I don’t know. I just… How am I supposed to know this stuff?” Sokka had not had an answer for him and Zuko had ended up with his forehead pressed to the table. “Your family _is_ very into PDA.”

Sokka had pulled a face, not needing a reminder of how much times he’d seen his parents and her sister and her boyfriend kiss. Of course, it had been basically the same whenever he’d been also in a relationship, but that didn’t matter.

“We’ll just… react to the situation, then.” Zuko had finally muttered. “If there’s a reason for us to kiss in front of them, then we do it, if not, we don’t.”

And that had been all.

Sokka hoped he didn’t have to kiss Zuko, if he was being honest. Not because he didn’t _want_ to kiss him, necessarily, but… knowing how your best friend kisses is a little bit weird, and he didn’t need that knowledge, thank you.

Still, now that Zuko was taking his hand to get him back in the present and to reassure him, he couldn’t do much except tighten his hold on it.

“Oh, you’re just too cute,” his mother said, rubbing her arm. “I want pictures, show me pictures.”

“Pictures?”

Kya’s answered was a swat with her hand. “Yeah, you know, couple pictures.”

“You have pictures of us,” Sokka muttered. “I sent you like ten last month.”

Kya had forced him to go somewhere in nature and had made him proof he’d actually gone there by taking pictures, and Zuko had dragged him to go somewhere peaceful and shit. It had been fun, a bit of a scape from reality. And then he’d been back, and he’d found out his mom had had a horrible day while he was away. She’d tried to make him feel better, but that didn’t take away from the guilt he felt. Katara had seen him with wet eyes and his favorite, softest blanket over his shoulders, and she hadn’t said anything, but she had hugged him tightly. She got it. She understood how he felt because basically the same thing had happened to her. It was a horrible situation, and both knew, on the logical part of their brains, that they had no control over their mom’s sickness, but that didn’t mean they didn’t feel bad sometimes.

“Those are not couple pictures, those are friend pictures! You were like three feet apart!”

“We don’t have… couple pictures.” It sounded more like a question, and his moms flat stare told him they really needed to take some of those pictures or else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These first few chapters don't have... a lot to them, idk. But the plot will pick up as we go!
> 
> Anyways, if you did enjoy this or you are excited for the story, comment! You can't imagine how much I value comments in my fics. Someone said on twitter that, sure, kudos are a thing, but they feel more like a number, whereas comments are more tangible... I don't know, all I know is I love reading people who liked my writing and seeing what they have to say!

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr!](https://persephx.tumblr.com/)


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